Anniversary Box

Well, April 27 was my 12th wedding anniversary. It may not sound like much, but I'm impressed. It doesn't seem like it's been 12 years already. Hubby and I spent our honeymoon at my family's cabin. My grandmother commented that she remembered me always saying that was where I wanted to spend my honeymoon, and it came true. The camp has always been special. I love that place. Growing up, I used to dream of living out there by myself, writing books. Seemed like the perfect writer's retreat ;) I loved getting out in the woods with my Dad. He'd take us fishing. We'd take walks. He'd tell us about the plants and trees he knew. It was a very special place. It was the only place we ever went on vacation to. We didn't mind. My friends at home were always talking about the beach, and I thought they were crazy. I'd take the woods any day. The beach doesn't interest me in the slightest.

Anyway, hubby and I like to go out to the camp each year for our anniversary. Well, this year Mom planned to open it up that weekend, and the last thing hubby wanted to do was spend our anniversary at camp with three other people. So I rented a cabin in Ansted, WV. It's just about 40 minutes from where we live. Hawk's Nest State Park is there, with trails, fishing, birds and spectacular views. The cabin was small, cozy, and it had a hot tub, which hubby and I had never experienced before. I carved a letterbox for the occasion, determined to plant it that weekend.

I tried to make a tee-time at the golf course for Friday morning because it was supposed to be storming on Saturday, but they were aerating the greens. Unfortunately that started my weekend in a funk. So Thursday morning we spent time at Walmart getting fishing gear. We don't get much chance to fish when our son is around. He needs constant supervision, then gets bored within 10 minutes and starts throwing rocks into the creek. So I long for the chance for just hubby and I to go fishing. We got out to the cabin at 4pm, checked in then went to the grocery store. We got hamburger helper and pork chops. Hubby hadn't had pork chops in awhile. We put things away, went out to Dairy Queen then came back and hubby wanted in the hot tub. Now, it was pretty hot outside and the cabin had been shut up when we got there. The owner brought out a little window air conditioner, but it still hadn't cooled down much. I didn't enjoy the hot tub too much that evening. Hubby woke me up at about 6:30 the next morning wanting to get in the hot tub again, and this time it wasn't bad. It was cool outside (not cold) and the water was warm (i had turned it down the night before.) We sat out there listening to the birds, and hubby saw a deer (I was too short to see from where I was sitting)

We got geared up for fishing and went out for breakfast. Then we drove to every little store between there and US 19 trying to find tackle for him. We brought his pole, but when we were shopping at Walmart he didn't think about what he would need to fish. Men! We ended up driving into Oak Hill to the Walmart there to get him fishing stuff. Well, he got two lures and a $40 pair of boots. At least I got two new pair of sandals ;) The pair I had was almost three years old and were not comfortable any more. On our way back we stopped at the New River Gorge bridge visitor's center. Saw a filmstrip, bought a couple books for educating our son about the wilderness, then walked across the street to the locally-owned gift shop and bought a pound of homemade fudge. Mmmmm....

We stopped at Subway on our way back to the cabin. It had been looking like rain. That blew over and we decided to walk around the property. The owners said that there was a creek out back. Well, outback and down the mountainside through heavy brush. We started down the hill and hit an old overgrown road. We walked down it for awhile, finding coyote scat, bear scat, and what looked like the coyote's den in some rocks. We also found what looked like an American Chestnut (two actually.) After our walk we went back to the cabin. I was bushed and not really interested in fishing any more. We changed, ate a little something, and went back out to Dairy Queen. The night before we both had banana splits. This night we both had the chocolate covered strawberry waffle bowl sundaes. I always ask them to put chocolate syrup on mine instead of the hot fudge. Eating chocolate flavored rubber just isn't one of my favorite things to do.

We watched alittle tv and then hubby wanted to get in the hot tub again. We didn't get to bed until almost midnight. Which made for a little bit of a late morning. We decided to go to the Park to find out how to get to a body of water to fish. I hadn't seen any access roads. Well, the first one we stopped at, there was a gift shop and we spent quite a bit of time in there. They had the neatest shirts. They were white with black design, but when you took them out into the daylight bright colors came out on the design. We had to get one for our son. We walked up to where the old museum was, then down the trail. Ended up walking the whole length of the Loop Trail, which I'd never known about even though I'd been there a dozen times! After that we went to the Lodge. Visited the gift shop and got hubby one of those glass block that have an image floating on the inside -- of the Marine Corps emblem. We got another one that had a bride and groom in it for me ;) We asked the lady how to get to the water, and she showed us on a trail map. Then we went out and walked the Lover's Leap trail. It was a very short one leading to an overlook. While there we scouted out a spot for the letterbox. We felt it was an appropriate spot for our anniversary letterbox. After this we went back to the cabin. I was hot and tired, and really didn't care about fishing any more. We ended up pulling the couch futon out and napping for a couple of hours. I fixed the pork chops for dinner. I wanted Dairy Queen again, but didn't feel like running out for it. We pretty much watched tv and turned in early.

Got up next morning, packed car, went to breakfast, stopped at Lover's Leap and planted the box. We were ready to get home and see our son. It was Sunday, and this was the actual day of our anniversary. On the way home, hubby said he wanted to take me out to the woods. He wanted to take our son out to the woods. He missed him. I suggested that we go to Kanawha State Forest that afternoon. He liked the idea. We got home, the rest of our family was already there (probably arrived within 30 minutes of each other) unloaded the car, packed an ice chest, nature books, bird book, fishing poles, and took off with our son. Stopped at the store to pick up hot dog stuff, and off the the forest we went.

When I got home I had notices telling me that my Devil's Backbone and Cranberry Glades boxes had been found three times that weekend. Hurray!